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Most impact: maxing out the credit card would lower your score by XX points (don't ask me how many). But the score is recoverable as you pay this back.

Least impact: closing the card since the score models may look only at average age of accounts rather than average age of "open" accounts. Even if you close the account, it would still continue to report as a pays as agreed, paid in full, tradeline and will stay on your credit report forever.

The real issue is that no one can predict a credit score based on some action. We can guess at the impact but can't guess at what which of the scoring models (more than 8 of them) will be affected more.

My opinion is that if your score is in the low 700s, maxing out the card could bring you down into the 600s, but still above 620 (as it's a utilization hit, not a non-payment hit). The problem is, can you pay the bill on time and how quickly do you need to pay it back down below 30%?

My unsolicited option is that if USAA can give you a small (unsecured) personal loan, for $500, it would be better for your credit overall. It would be an installment loan and doesn't impact your score the way a max-out credit card would affect your score.

Comment

I just paid the card off with a 0% balance transfer for 14 months with Discover. instead of letting my money sit out there unused I thought I would close the account, thus getting my money back. Then it occurred to me that might not be the best move and wanted feedback on what to do. if I max it out, I could have it paid back within 6 months, but back to still holding my money hostage repeating the same process over and over.